The Campo from above
The whole shell-shaped square directly below.
H005 — Public domain · Myrabella — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Giorgio Galeotti — CC BY 3.0 · Anila amataj — CC BY-SA 4.0
**An 88-metre tower built to exactly equal the cathedral — a statement that state and church stand level** — above the Palazzo Pubblico. It was built between **1338 and 1348**, **and its height is deliberate**: **the same as Siena Cathedral's** — **an explicit political message** that civil authority is no lesser than religious. ⚠ **Its name is odd**: it comes from its first bell-ringer, **Giovanni di Duccio**, nicknamed **"Mangiaguadagni"** — **"the profit-eater"**, because he squandered his wages. **So the tower is named after a spendthrift.** ✅ **At its foot is the Cappella di Piazza**, built as a vow after the Black Death ended. ⚠ **The climb is 400 steps** in a narrow, steep shaft. ✅ **The view from the top** looks straight down on the Campo and out over the Tuscan hills.
The whole shell-shaped square directly below.
A chapel at the tower's foot vowed after the plague.
The countryside around the city from the summit.
Piazza del Campo 1, 53100 Siena, Italy
Palazzo Pubblico**A 14th-century town hall still in use, holding the most famous political paint1 minute walk4.8
Piazza del Campo**A shell-shaped square sloping inward, divided into nine sectors, where a horse1 minute walk4.9
Siena Cathedral**A cathedral striped throughout in black and white marble, its floor fifty-six 4 minutes walk4.9
Santa Maria della Scala**One of Europe's oldest hospitals — it worked for a thousand years and is now a4 minutes walk4.7
National Picture Gallery of Siena**The complete collection of the Sienese school of painting — gold, flat grounds4 minutes walk4.5**The Facciatone to see the cathedral, the Mangia to see the Campo — and neither gives you what the other does.** ✅ **The Torre del Mangia (88 m, 400 steps)**: **the higher**, and from it **you look straight down on Piazza del Campo**, the whole shell at once — **a view you get nowhere else**; **and you see the cathedral at a distance** within the city's fabric. ⚠ **The climb is harder**: 400 steps, a very narrow shaft and a queue. ✅ **The Facciatone (the unfinished cathedral front)**: **shorter and quicker**, and from it **you see the cathedral itself close up** — its dome and its black-and-white striped campanile from a high, near angle, **the finest thing to photograph in Siena**; ✅ **and you see the Torre del Mangia**, the city and the hills. ⚠ **Its spiral stair is also very narrow** and numbers are limited. ✅ **The rule**: **if you have only one climb, take the Facciatone** — the view is the better picture for less effort, **and it is normally included in the cathedral's combined ticket**, so it costs you nothing extra. ✅ **With two days, climb both** — at different times of day.